A fairy jumps from one music stand to another, a flying lion chases horses, an island animal devours sirens. Mason Bates is a composer, DJ and curator who pushes the boundaries of musical styles. Teddy Abrams, music director and conductor of the Louisville Orchestra, was named Conductor of the Year 2022 in the USA. “Whether writing and premiering a rap-opera honoring Muhammad Ali or promoting the power of Black music, he’s always looking for ways for orchestras to empower their musicians.” (Musical America)
Teddy Abrams
Teddy Abrams (born 1987) is an American conductor, pianist, clarinetist, and composer. He has been Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra in Kentucky, USA, since 2014. In the summer of 2023, Abrams stepped down from the podium, concluding his ten-year tenure as Music Director of Oregon's Britt Festival Orchestra. Abrams was named Musical America’s Conductor of the Year in 2022.
Abrams was born and raised in California. He began studying conducting with Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, at age 12. His further studies led him to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, as well as to the Curtis Institute of Music and Aspen Music Festival and School.
Abrams’ rap-opera premiered in 2017. Among Abrams’ recent compositional highlights is Mammoth, an immersive work performed in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in April 2023. Currently, Abrams is working on ALI, a new Broadway musical about boxing legend Muhammad Ali, which is scheduled to have its world premiere in autumn 2024.
Autumn 2023 will see Abrams is making his debut with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.
Mason Bates: Anthology of Fantastic Zoology
US composer Mason Bates (b. 1977) is known for his operas, film scores and symphonic works, as Musical America’s Composer of the Year 2018 and already the winner of two Grammy awards. The interlocking movements of his Anthology of Fantastic Zoology are based on the Book of Imaginary Beings (1957) by Luis Borges and Margarita Guerrero that is, says Bates, “a kind of psychedelic Carnival of the Animals”.
The imaginative creatures provoke new sounds and instrumentation, with a special focus on spatial possibilities. For example, the opening Sprite hops from music stand to music stand, even bouncing offstage. The A Bao A Qu is a serpentine creature that slithers up a tower, then slides back down. Nymphs features two clarinets, while The Gryphon uses timpani and brass to conjure a flying lion that hunts horses. The lyrical core of the piece, Sirens, features offstage violins but is short lived, as the island they approach devours them in The Zaratan. The finale occurs at the moment between midnight and dawn, as the animals fuse together in the darkest, deepest part of the forest.
Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881) wrote his Pictures at an Exhibition after visiting an exhibition held in honour of his architect-painter friend Vladimir Hartmann, who had died at the age of just 39. In his music, Mussorgsky imagined himself promenading from one picture to another, and was so inspired by what he saw that he sat down and composed the work in only a couple of days. Of the hundreds of works on show, he chose 10 painted by Hartman on his travels in Europe: The Gnome, The Old Castle and the Tuileries in Paris, Bydlo (Cattle) in Poland. The Ballet of Unhatched Chicks evokes the costumes designed by Hartman for a ballet, while Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle catches a conversation between two Jews, one rich and the other poor. From Limoges. The Market the visitor descends into the Catacombs to converse with the dead. Baba Yaga describes the hut on fowl’s legs inhabited by the witch of that name, and The Great Gate at Kiev rounds off the set with a variation of the Promenade theme that has linked the pictures together.
Many composers and conductors have orchestrated the original piano score. Tonight’s is the version most often performed and was made by Maurice Ravel in 1922.
| Violin 1 Pekka Kauppinen Mari Poll-Novakovic Tuuli Talvitie Elina Lehto Totti Hakkarainen Ilkka Lehtonen Maiju Kauppinen Helmi Kuusi Kari Olamaa Eija Hartikainen Petri Päivärinne Jani Lehtonen Katariina Jämsä Lina Leikola Taru Kircher Aada Kuoppa Violin 2 Maaria Leino Krista Rosenberg Teija Kivinen Eva Ballaz Heini Eklund Harry Rayner Dhyani Gylling Teppo Ali-Mattila Matilda Haavisto Terhi Ignatius Pia Sundroos Liam Mansfield Pauline Fleming-Unelius Virpi Taskila Viola Petteri Poijärvi Mariette Reefman Liisa Orava Aulikki Haahti-Turunen Kaarina Ikonen Jaakko Laivuori Hajnalka Standi-Pulakka Ada Koivukangas Carmen Moggach Tiila Kangas Hanna Pakkala Cello Tuomas Ylinen Lauri Kankkunen Beata Antikainen Ilmo Saaristo Veli-Matti Iljin Joanna Hanhikoski Mathias Hortling Jaakko Rajamäki Saara Särkimäki Fransien Paananen Bass Mehdi Nejjoum-Barthélémy Ville Väätäinen Jani Pensola Adrian Rigopulos Tuomo Matero Paul Aksman Eero Ignatius Juraj Valencik | Flute Saxophone Olli-Pekka Tuomisalo |
Yes, but only before or after the concert. During the concert we just want you to enjoy the music. This way you won’t disturb the musicians or other audience members.
Only the orchestra has a dress code. You can dress as you like.
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